Apple hiring members of rival RIM's enterprise sales team

Apple's efforts to muscle its way into the corporate market with iPhones and iPads is getting an infusion of talent from Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, with at least five employees making the switch in the last year and a half.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, resumes of several key members of RIM's enterprise sales team have been updated to note they are now working for Apple.

The list includes Geoff Perfect, who worked as RIM's Head of Strategic Sales over the past five years before joining Apple in April 2009, where he now serves as the company's Head of Enterprise iPhone Sales.

RIM's Senior Global Sales Manager Joe Bartlett, Global Strategic Account Manager Steve Marshall and Global Account Manager Peter Decker all quit the company in the beginning of 2010 after working there for about four years. All three are now selling Apple iOS devices to businesses.

Paul Alvarez, another Global Strategic Account Manager for RIM with around five years of experience, also joined Apple in June, and is now selling iPhones and iPads to enterprise markets in Canada.

Apple confirmed that all five were now working for the company, but declined to elaborate. The report said RIM officials "weren't immediately available for comment."

Apple vs RIM

Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs first noted that the iPhone had outsold RIM's BlackBerry in 2008, in a quarterly peak of sales that hit 6.9 million units in the third quarter of that year.

This year, Jobs not only repeated that Apple has exceeded RIM in sales, selling 14.1 million iPhones to the 12.2 million devices RIM sold in its own most recent quarter, but also added, "I don't see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future. It will be a challenge for them to create a mobile software platform and convince developers to support a third platform."

Apple's ability to bypass RIM is significant because that company has a strong and loyal base of customers attached to its own messaging server infrastructure. Even Microsoft found it difficult to compete with RIM's "BlackBerry Enterprise Server," offering, forcing it to deliver its own equivalent for Windows Mobile for free.

Apple partnered with Microsoft to connect its popular Exchange Server to the iPhone after Windows Mobile itself failed to gain much significant traction among businesses, resulting in a powerful alternative to RIM's own hardware and messaging service package.

In contrast, while Android is gaining buzz as a large platform across a number of hardware vendors, it lacks full support for Exchange Server and other enterprise features that businesses value, including support for WiFi proxy servers, a variety of VPN implementations, and emerging open standards such as CalDAV.

Apple in the Enterprise

Apple has historically lacked much standing in enterprise markets outside of a niche role in publishing and graphic design with the Macintosh. Jobs' NeXT aimed its sales at enterprise markets, and after being acquired by Apple was largely converted into the revitalized company's enterprise group.

However, the new Apple wasn't taken very seriously in enterprise markets and its consumer focus resulted in most of its enterprise expertise being reallocated to scuttled. Even the relatively new Xserve and Xserve RAID products, both released in the last decade and aimed at business users, have since been discontinued.

However, the strengths of the company's iOS development platform and its competitively priced mobile hardware have reversed that situation. Jobs noted in the company's most recent conference call with analysts that even though the company hasn't pushed the iPad "real hard in business" that "it's being grabbed out of our hands."

He added, "we've got a tiger by the tail here, and this is a new model of computing which we've already got tens of millions of people trained on with the iPhone, and that lends itself to lots of different aspects of life, both personal and business."

The company also recently partnered with Unisys to service and develop solutions for enterprise users aimed at boosting sales of iPhones and iPads among businesses and in government.

They can poach sales people all days long, we still do not have effective tools to manage these iDevices in the enterprise as we do with RIM devices.

As far as companies not taking Apple seriously - the executive management at my employer (with over 400,000 employees) still thinks Macs are consumer toys and they will not spend a dime to manage them. I've tried several times and been told no despite what company policy states..

Apple has had plenty of time to develop enterprise solutions at the proper level and what do we have? And no IPCU doesn't even come close. Still waiting on 3rd party companies to hopefully provide [mature] solutions. Then, where is the budget for purchasing this since Apple did not provide anything? I know - rambling...

They can poach sales people all days long, we still do not have effective tools to manage these iDevices in the enterprise as we do with RIM devices.

As far as companies not taking Apple seriously - the executive management at my employer (with over 400,000 employees) still thinks Macs are consumer toys and they will not spend a dime to manage them. I've tried several times and been told no despite what company policy states..

Apple has had plenty of time to develop enterprise solutions at the proper level and what do we have? And no IPCU doesn't even come close. Still waiting on 3rd party companies to hopefully provide [mature] solutions. Then, where is the budget for purchasing this since Apple did not provide anything? I know - rambling...

Some in-depth comparisons between the Enterprise solutions you are referring to with BB devices and the shortcomings of IPCU (iPhone Configuration Utility) would surely help us understand where you are coming from.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Show me how IPCU even compares as an enterprise management tool and I might.

Youre the one that stated that its not effective, hence my query. Im not going to research a bunch a of tools Im not aware of because you either A) are too lazy to back up your own claim, or B) dont have a valid argument to make.

BTW, I never even considered the latter option until you deflect your argument on to me instead of actually defending your position.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

You’re the one that stated that it’s not effective, hence my query. I’m not going to research a bunch a of tools I’m not aware of because you either A) are too lazy to back up your own claim, or B) don’t have a valid argument to make.

BTW, I never even considered the latter option until you deflect your argument on to me instead of actually defending your position.

I was not deflecting anything. I do not know I why I must sit here and convince you when you honestly don't care about this since it does not affect you.
We both know this is a fruitless argument that will surely digress as usual. Lazy, I don't think so since I took the time to read a PDF.

I am just going to list some of the settings that IPCU can control with config files that there is not an truly effective manner to manage these items in an enterprise. The best solution I was provided by Apple was to email config files out to 75,000+ users and then continue to send then out as changes were required. Really?! That is the best answer? So, not only is that an Administrative nightmare, we are supposed to count on the user to install this and keep it updated when we are restricting their use with these files? Also, how can Enterprises manage iTunes use?

Gathers inventory information, can be manged by policy, deploy applications to it, restrict things, send out the same configurations that IPCU does, remote wipes, and the list goes on.

Granted you CAN do a remote wipe if you're using Exchange and it was configured, but it's not as much of a guarantee. And from the sounds of it the locate the lost device issue is now covered with that service being free from Apple.

I still have to chuckle a little with Apple and the word "Enterprise" together. Just axed the XServe, and don't offer better methods for dealing with application purchases within an Enterprise. The Volume Purchasing Program helps Education currently, but it still doesn't fix all of the problems. I imagine Apple will extend the Volume Purchasing Program to Corporations as well, it's still a very similar model.

Gathers inventory information, can be manged by policy, deploy applications to it, restrict things, send out the same configurations that IPCU does, remote wipes, and the list goes on.

Granted you CAN do a remote wipe if you're using Exchange and it was configured, but it's not as much of a guarantee. And from the sounds of it the locate the lost device issue is now covered with that service being free from Apple.

I still have to chuckle a little with Apple and the word "Enterprise" together. Just axed the XServe, and don't offer better methods for dealing with application purchases within an Enterprise. The Volume Purchasing Program helps Education currently, but it still doesn't fix all of the problems. I imagine Apple will extend the Volume Purchasing Program to Corporations as well, it's still a very similar model.

Sorry I had mentioned without spending tens of thousands of dollars for a 3rd party tool and supporting infrastructure. I had to retype my reply 3 times because I kept getting logged out and missed putting that back in. We took a peek at JAMF also, but again be bounce up on the attitude that Macs are consumer toys so no funding...

It's too bad Apple doesn't actually try to go after the enterprise like this with the Xserve. They need get their act together, without the Xserve for management trying to justify large deployments of Mac desktops in the corporate world etc... will be EXTREMELY difficult near impossible. I wish Apple would put the same effort it puts behind trying to get iPhone and iPad adopted in the enterprise.

I wonder how they plan to manage all those iDevices without the Xserve as well. I don't like the strategy. Apple would had be in a better position with the Xserve. Wish they would had bought Sun when they had the chance. They would have gained instant credibility, solid technology and engineering, along with the sales channel and support staff that they need to tackle the enterprise. Maybe Apple can scoop up Joyent (the new Sun) on the cheap and partner with Oracle to get Mac OS X on the Sun Fire servers. It's the only way to insure proper management and deployment for large quantities of Mac desktops and iDevices.